Our arrival at Abbot Serapion's cell, and inquiry on the different kinds of
faults and the way to overcome them.

IN that assembly of Ancients and Elders was a man named Serapion, (1) especially
endowed with the grace of discretion, whose Conference I think it is worth
while to set down in writing. For when we entreated him to discourse of the
way to overcome our faults, so that their origin and cause might be made clearer
to us, he thus began.

Of the two classes of faults and their fourfold manner of acting on us.

OF these faults then there are two classes. For they are either natural to
us as gluttony, or arise outside of nature as covetousness. But their manner
of acting on us is fourfold. For some cannot be consummated without an act
on the part of the flesh, as gluttony and fornication, while some can be completed
without any bodily act, as pride and vainglory. Some find the reasons for their
being excited outside us, as covetousness and anger; others are aroused by
internal feelings, as accidie (2) and dejection.

CHAPTER IV.

A review of the passions of gluttony and fornication and their remedies.

AND to
make this clearer not only by a short discussion to the best of my ability,
but by Scripture
proof as
well, gluttony and fornication, though they
exist in us naturally (for sometimes they spring up without any incitement
from the mind, and simply at the motion and allurement of the flesh) yet if
they are to be consummated, must find an external object, and thus take effect
only through bodily acts. For "every man is tempted of his own lust. Then
lust when it has conceived beareth sin, and sin when it is consummated begets
death." (1) For the first Adam could not have fallen a victim to gluttony
unless he had had material food at hand, and had used it wrongly, nor could
the second Adam be tempted without the enticement of some object, when it was
said to Him: "If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones be
made bread." (2) And it is clear to everybody that fornication also is
only completed by a bodily act, as God says of this spirit to the blessed Job: "And
his force is in his loins, and his strength in the navel of his belly." (8)
And so these two faults in particular, which are carried into effect by the
aid of the flesh, especially require bodily abstinence as well as spiritual
care of the soul; since the determination of the mind is not in itself enough
to resist their attacks (as is sometimes the case with anger or gloominess
or the other passions, which an effort of the mind alone can overcome without
any mortification of the flesh); but bodily chastisement must be used as well,
and be carried out by means of fasting and vigils and acts of contrition; and
to this must be added change of scene, because since these sins are the results
of faults of both mind and body, so they can only be overcome by the united
efforts of both. And although the blessed Apostle says generally that all faults
are carnal, since he enumerates enmities and anger and heresies among other
works of the flesh, (4) yet in order to cure them and to discover their nature
more exactly we make a twofold division of them: for we call some of them carnal,
and some spiritual. And those we call carnal, which specially have to do with
pampering the appetites of the flesh, and with which it is so charmed and satisfied,
that sometimes it excites the mind when at rest and even drags it against its
will to consent to its desire. Of which the blessed Apostle says: "In
which also we all walked in time past in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling
the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath
even as the rest." (5) But we call those spiritual which spring only from
the impulse of the mind and not merely contribute no pleasure to the flesh,
but actually bring on it a weakness that is harmful to it, and only feed a
diseased mind with the food of a most miserable pleasure. And therefore these
need a single medicine for the heart: but those which are carnal can only be
cured, as we said, by a double remedy. Whence it is extremely useful for those
who aspire to purity, to begin by withdrawing from themselves the material
which feeds these carnal passions, through which opportunity for or recollection
of these same desires can arise in a soul that is still affected by the evil.
For a complicated disease needs a complicated remedy. For from the body the
object and material which would allure it must be withdrawn, for fear lest
the lust should endeavour to break out into act; and before the mind we should
no less carefully place diligent meditation on Scripture and watchful anxiety
and the withdrawal into solitude, lest it should give birth to desire even
in thought. But as regards other faults intercourse with our fellows is no
obstacle, or rather it is of the greatest possible use, to those who truly
desire to get rid of them, because in mixing with others they more often meet
with rebuke, and while they are more frequently provoked the existence of the
faults is made evident, and so they are cured with speedy remedies.

CHAPTER V.

How our Lord alone was tempted without sin.

And so
our Lord Jesus Christ, though declared by the Apostle's word to have been
tempted in all
points like as
we are, is yet said to have been "without
sin," (6) i.e., without the infection of this appetite, as He knew nothing
of incitements of carnal lust, with which we are sure to be troubled even against
our will and without our knowledge; (7) for the archangel thus describes the
manner of His conception: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the
power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore that which shall be
born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God." (1)

CHAPTER VI.

Of the manner of the temptation in which our Lord was attacked by the devil.

For it
was right that He who was in possession of the perfect image and likeness
of God should
be Himself
tempted through those passions, through which Adam
also was tempted while he still retained the image of God unbroken, that is,
through gluttony, vainglory, pride; and not through those in which he was by
his own fault entangled and involved after the transgression of the commandment,
when the image and likeness of God was marred. For it was gluttony through
which he took the fruit of the forbidden tree, vainglory through which it was
said "Your eyes shall be opened," and pride through which it was
said "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (2) With these
three sins then we read that the Lord our Saviour was also tempted; with gluttony
when the devil said to Him: "Command these stones that they be made bread:" with
vainglory: "If Thou art the Son of God cast Thyself down:" with pride,
when he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and
said: "All this will I give to Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship
me:" (3) in order that He might by His example teach us how we ought to
vanquish the tempter when we are attacked on the same lines of temptation as
He was. And so both the former and the latter are spoken of as Adam; the one
being the first for destruction and death, and the other the first for resurrection
and life. Through the one the whole race of mankind is brought into condemnation,
through the other the whole race of mankind is set free. The one was fashioned
out of raw and unformed earth, the other was born of the Virgin Mary. In His
case then though it was fitting that He should undergo temptation, yet it was
not necessary that He should fail under it. Nor could He who had vanquished
gluttony be tempted by fornication, which springs from superfluity and gluttony
as its root, with which even the first Adam would not have been destroyed unless
before its birth he had been deceived by the wiles of the devil and fallen
a victim to passion. And therefore the Son of God is not said absolutely to
have come "in the flesh of sin," but "in the likeness of the
flesh of sin," because though His was true flesh and He ate and drank
and slept, and truly received the prints of the nails, there was in Him no
true sin inherited from the fall, but only what was something like it. For
He had no experience of the fiery darts of carnal lust, which in our case arise
even against our will, from the constitution of our natures, but He took upon
Him something like this, by sharing in our nature. For as He truly fulfilled
every function which belongs to us, and bore all human infirmities, He has
consequently been considered to have been subject to this feeling also, that
He might appear through these infirmities to bear in His own flesh the state
even of this fault and sin. Lastly the devil only tempted Him to those sins,
by which he had deceived the first Adam, inferring that He as man would similarly
be deceived in other matters if he found that He was overcome by those temptations
by which he had overthrown His predecessor. But as he was overthrown in the
first encounter he was not able to bring upon Him the second infirmity which
had shot up as from the root of the first fault. For he saw that He had not
even admitted anything from which this infirmity might take its rise, and it
was idle to hope for the fruit of sin from Him, as he saw that He in no sort
of way received into Himself seeds or roots of it. Yet according to Luke, who
places last that temptation in which he uses the words "If Thou art the
Son of God, cast Thyself down," (4) we can understand this of the feeling
of pride, so that that earlier one, which Matthew places third, in which, as
Luke the evangelist says, the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time and promised them to Him, may be taken of the feeling of
covetousness, because after His victory over gluttony, he did not venture to
tempt Him to fornication, but passed on to covetousness, which he knew to be
the root of all evils, (5) and when again vanquished in this, he did not dare
attack Him with any of those sins which follow, which, as he knew full well,
spring from this as a root and source; and so he passed on to the last passion;
viz., pride, by which he knew that those who are perfect and have overcome
all other sins, can be affected, and owing to which he remembered that he himself
in his character of Lucifer, and many others too, had fallen from their heavenly
estate, without temptation from any of the preceding passions. In this order
then which we have mentioned, which is the one given by the evangelist Luke,
there is an exact agreement between the allurements and forms of the temptations
by which that most crafty foe attacked both the first and the second Adam.
For to the one he said "Your eyes shall be opened;" to the other "he
showed all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them." In the one
case he said "Ye shall be as gods;" in the other, "If Thou art
the Son of God." (1)

CHAPTER VII.

How vainglory and pride can be consummated without any assistance from the
body.

And to
go on in the order which we proposed, with our account of the way in which
the other passions
act
(our analysis of which was obliged to be interrupted
by this account of gluttony and of the Lord's temptation) vainglory and pride
can be consummated even without the slightest assistance from the body. For
in what way do those passions need any action of the flesh, which bring ample
destruction on the soul they take captive simply by its assent and wish to
gain praise and glory from men? Or what act on the part of the body was there
in that pride of old in the case of the above mentioned Lucifer; as he only
conceived it in his heart and mind, as the prophet tells us: "Who saidst
in thine heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars
of God. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most
High." (2) And just as he had no one to stir him up to this pride, so
his thoughts alone were the authors of the sin when complete and of his eternal
fall; especially as no exercise of the dominion at which he aimed followed.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of covetousness, which is something outside our nature, and of the difference
between it and those faults which are natural to us.

COVETOUSNESS and anger, although they are not of the same character (for the
former is something outside our nature, while the latter seems to have as it
were its seed plot within us) yet they spring up in the same way, as in most
instances they find the reasons for their being stirred in something outside
of us. For often men who are still rather weak complain that they have fallen
into these sins through irritation and the instigation of others, and are plunged
headlong into the passions of anger and covetousness by the provocation of
other people. But that covetousness is something outside our nature, we can
clearly see from this; viz., that it is proved not to have its first starting
point inside us, nor does it originate in what contributes to keeping body
and soul together, and to the existence of life. For it is plain that nothing
belongs to the actual needs and necessities of our common life except our daily
meat and drink: but everything else, with whatever zeal and care we preserve
it, is shown to be something distinct from the wants of man by the needs of
life itself. And so this temptation, as being something outside our nature,
only attacks those monks who are but lukewarm and built on a bad foundation,
whereas those which are natural to us do not cease from troubling even the
best of monks and those who dwell in solitude. And so far is this shown to
be true, that we find that there are some nations who are altogether free from
this passion of covetousness, because they have never by use and custom received
into themselves this fault and infirmity. And we believe that the old world
before the flood was for long ages ignorant of the madness of this desire.
And in the case of each one of us who makes his renunciation of the world a
thorough one, we know that it is extirpated without any difficulty, if, that
is, a man gives up all his property, and seeks the monastic discipline in such
a way as not to allow himself to keep a single farthing. And we can find thousands
of men to bear witness to this, who in a single moment have given up all their
property, and have so thoroughly eradicated this passion as not to be in the
slightest degree troubled by it afterwards, though all their life long they
have to fight against gluttony, and cannot be safe from it without striving
with the utmost watchfulness of heart and bodily abstinence.

CHAPTER IX.

How dejection and accidie generally arise without any external provocation,
as in the case of other faults. (3)

DEJECTION and accidie generally arise without any external provocation, like
those others of which we have been speaking: for we are well aware that they
often harass solitaries, and those who have settled themselves in the desert
without any intercourse with other men, and this in the most distressing way.
And the truth of this any one who has lived in the desert and made trial of
the conflicts of the inner man, can easily prove by experience.

CHAPTER X.

How six of these faults are related, and the two which differ from them are
akin to one another.

OF these eight faults then, although they are different in their origin and
in their way of affecting us, yet the six former; viz., gluttony, fornication,
covetousness, anger, dejection, accidie, have a sort of connexion with each
other, and are, so to speak, linked together in a chain, so that any excess
of the one forms a starting point for the next. For from superfluity of gluttony
fornication is sure to spring, and from fornication covetousness, from covetousness
anger, from anger, dejection, and from dejection, accidie. And so we must fight
against them in the same way, and with the same methods: and having overcome
one, we ought always to enter the lists against the next. For a tall and spreading
tree of a noxious kind will the more easily be made to wither if the roots
on which it depends have first been laid bare or cut; and a pond of water which
is dangerous will be dried up at once if the spring and flowing channel which
produce it are carefully stopped up. Wherefore in order to overcome accidie,
you must first get the better of dejection: in order to get rid of dejection,
anger must first be expelled: in order to quell anger, covetousness must be
trampled under foot: in order to root out covetousness, fornication must be
checked: and in order to destroy fornication, you must chastise the sin of
gluttony. But the two remaining faults; viz., vainglory and pride, are connected
together in a somewhat similar way as the others of which we have spoken, so
that the growth of the one makes a starting point for the other (for superfluity
of vainglory produces an incentive to pride); but they are altogether different
from the six former faults, and are not joined in the same category with them,
since not only is there no opportunity given for them to spring up from these,
but they are actually aroused in an entirely different way and manner. For
when these others have been eradicated these latter flourish the more vigorously,
and from the death of the others they shoot forth and grow up all the stronger:
and therefore we are attacked by these two faults in quite a different way.
For we fall into each one of those six faults at the moment when we have been
overcome by the ones that went before them; but into these two we are in danger
of falling when we have proved victorious, and above all after some splendid
triumph. In the cases then of all faults just as they spring up from the growth
of those that go before them, so are they eradicated by getting rid of the
earlier ones. And in this way in order that pride may be driven out vainglory
must be stifled, and so if we always overcome the earlier ones, the later ones
will be checked; and through the extermination of those that lead the way,
the rest of our passions will die down without difficulty. And though these
eight faults of which we have spoken are connected and joined together in the
way which we have shown, yet they may be more exactly divided into four groups
and sub-divisions. For to gluttony fornication is linked by a special tie:
to covetousness anger, to dejection accidie, and to vainglory pride is closely
allied.

CHAPTER XI.

Of the origin and character of each of these faults.

AND now,
to speak about each kind of fault separately: of gluttony there are three
sorts: (I) that
which drives
a monk to eat before the proper and stated
times; (2) that which cares about filling the belly and gorging it with all
kinds of food, and (3) that which is on the lookout for dainties and delicacies.
And these three sorts give a monk no little trouble, unless he tries to free
himself from all of them with the same care and scrupulousness. For just as
one should never venture to break one's fast before the right time so we must
utterly avoid all greediness in eating, and the choice and dainty preparation
of our food: for from these three causes different but extremely dangerous
conditions of the soul arise. For from the first there springs up dislike of
the monastery, and thence there grows up disgust and intolerance of the life
there, and this is sure to be soon followed by withdrawal and speedy departure
from it. By the second there are kindled the fiery darts of luxury and lasciviousness.
The third also weaves the entangling meshes of covetousness for the nets of
its prisoners, and ever hinders monks from following the perfect self-abnegation
of Christ. And when there are traces of this passion in us we can recognize
them by this; viz., if we are kept to dine by one of the brethren we are not
content to eat our food with the relish which he has prepared and offers to
us, but take the unpardonable liberty of asking to have something else poured.
over it or added to it, a thing which we should never do for three reasons:
(I) because the monastic mind ought always to be accustomed to practise endurance
and abstinence, and like the Apostle, to learn to be content in whatever state
he is. (1) For one who is upset by taking an unsavoury morsel once and in a
way, and who cannot even for a short time overcome the delicacy of his appetite
will never succeed in curbing the secret and more important desires of the
body; (2) because it sometimes happens that at the time our host is out of
that particular thing which we ask for, and we make him feel ashamed of the
wants and bareness of his table, by exposing his poverty which he would rather
was only known to God; (3) because sometimes other people do not care about
the relish which we ask for, and so it turns out that we are annoying most
of them while intent on satisfying the desires of our own palate. And on this
account we must by all means avoid such a liberty. Of fornication there are
three sorts: (I) that which is accomplished by sexual intercourse; (2) that
which takes place without touching a woman, for which we read that Onan the
son of the patriarch Judah was smitten by the Lord; and which is termed by
Scripture uncleanness: of which the Apostle says: "But I say to the unmarried
and to widows, that it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they
do not contain let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn;" (2)
(3) that which is conceived in heart and mind, of which the Lord says in the
gospel: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed
adultery with her in his heart." (3) And these three kinds the blessed
Apostle tells us must be stamped out in one and the same way. "Mortify," says
he, "your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness,
lust, etc." (4) And again of two of them he says to the Ephesians: "Let
fornication and uncleanness be not so much as named among you:" and once
more: "But know this that no fornicator or unclean person, or covetous
person who is an idolater hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of
God." (5) And just as these three must be avoided by us with equal care,
go they one and all shut us out and exclude us equally from the kingdom of
Christ. Of covetousness there are three kinds: (I) That which hinders renunciants
from allowing themselves of be stripped of their goods and property; (2) that
which draws us to resume with excessive eagerness the possession of those things
which we have given away and distributed to the poor; (3) that which leads
a man to covet and procure what he never previously possessed. Of anger there
are three kinds: one which rages within, which is called in Greek <greek>qum</greek><s<greek>os</greek>;
another which breaks out in word and deed and action, which they term <greek>oqgh</greek>:
of which the Apostle speaks, saying "But now do ye lay aside all anger
and indignation;" (6) the third, which is not like those in boiling over
and being done with in an hour, but which lasts for days and long periods,
which is called <greek>mhnis</greek>. And all these three must
be condemned by us with equal horror. Of deflection there are two kinds: one,
that which springs up when anger has died down, or is the result of some loss
we have incurred or of some purpose which has been hindered and interfered
with; the other, that which comes from unreasonable anxiety of mind or from
despair. Of accidie there are two kinds: one of which sends those affected
by it to sleep; while the other makes them forsake their cell and flee away.
Of vainglory, although it takes various forms and shapes, and is divided into
different classes, yet there are two main kinds: (I) when we are puffed up
about carnal things and things visible, and (2) when we are inflamed with the
desire of vain praise for things spiritual and unseen.

CHAPTER XII.

How vainglory may be useful to us.

BUT in
one matter vainglory is found to be a useful thing for beginners. I mean
by those who are still
troubled
by carnal sins, as for instance, if, when
they are troubled by the spirit of fornication, they formed an idea of the
dignity of the priesthood, or of reputation among all men, by which they maybe
thought saints and immaculate: and so with these considerations they repell
the unclean suggestions of lust, as deeming them base and at least unworthy
of their rank and reputation; and so by means of a smaller evil they overcome
a greater one. For it is better for a man to be troubled by the sin of vainglory
than for him to fall into the desire for fornication, from which he either
cannot recover at all or only with great difficulty after he has fallen. And
this thought is admirably expressed by one of the prophets speaking in the
person of God, and saying: "For My name's sake I will remove My wrath
afar off: and with My praise I will bridle thee lest thou shouldest perish," (1)
i.e., while you are enchained by the praises of vainglory, you cannot possibly
rush on into the depths of hell, or plunge irrevocably into the commission
of deadly sins. Nor need we wonder that this passion has the power of checking
anyone from rushing into the sin of fornication, since it has been again and
again proved by many examples that when once a man has been affected by its
poison and plague, it makes him utterly indefatigable, so that he scarcely
feels a fast of even two or three days. And we have often known some who are
living in this desert, confessing that when their home was in the monasteries
of Syria they could without difficulty go for five days without food, while
now they are so overcome with hunger even by the third hour, that they can
scarcely keep on their daily fast to the ninth hour. And on this subject there
is a very neat answer of Abbot Macarius (2) to one who asked him why he was
troubled with hunger as early as the third hour in the desert, when in the
monastery he had often scorned food for a whole week, without feeling hungry. "Because," said
he, "here there is nobody to see your fast, and feed and support you with
his praise of you: but there you grew fat on the notice of others and the food
of vainglory." And of the way in which, as we said, the sin of fornication
is prevented by an attack of vainglory, there is an excellent and significant
figure in the book of Kings, where, when the children of Israel had been taken
captive by Necho, King of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Assyria, came up and
brought them back from the borders of Egypt to their own country, not indeed
meaning to restore them to their former liberty and their native land, but
meaning to carry them off to his own land and to transport them to a still
more distant country than the land of Egypt in which they had been prisoners.
And this illustration exactly applies to the case before us. For though there
is less harm in yielding to the sin of vainglory than to fornication, yet it
is more difficult to escape from the dominion of vainglory. For somehow or
other the prisoner who is carried off to a greater distance, will have more
difficulty in returning to his native land and the freedom of his fathers,
and the prophet's rebuke will be deservedly aimed at him: "Wherefore art
thou grown old in a strange country? (3) since a man is rightly said to have
grown old in a strange country, if he has not broken up the Found of his faults.
Of pride there are two kinds: (I) carnal, and (2) spiritual, which is the worse.
For it especially attacks those who are seen to have made progress in some
good qualities.

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the different ways in which all these faults assault us.

ALTHOUGH then these eight faults trouble all sorts of men, yet they do not
attack them all in the same way. For in one man the spirit of fornication holds
the chief place: wrath rides rough shod over another: over another vainglory
claims dominion: in an other pride holds the field: and though it is clear
that we are all attacked by all of them, yet the difficulties come to each
of us in very different ways and manners.

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the struggle into which we must enter against our faults, when they attack
us.

WHEREFORE
we must enter the lists against these faults in such a way that every one
should discover
his besetting
sin, and direct his main attack against
it, directing all his care and watchfulness of mind to guard against its assault,
directing against it daily the weapons of fasting, and at all times hurling
against it the constant darts of sighs and groanings from the heart, and employing
against it the labours of vigils and the meditation of the heart, and further
pouring forth to God constant tears and prayers and continually and expressly
praying to be delivered from its attack. For it is impossible for a man to
win a triumph over any kind of passion, unless he has first clearly understood
that he cannot possibly gain the victory in the struggle with it by his own
strength and efforts, although in order that he may be rendered pure he must
night and day persist in the utmost care and watchfulness. And even when he
feels that he has got rid of this fault, he should still search the inmost
recesses of his heart with the same purpose, and single out the worst fault
which he can see among those still there, and bring all the forces of the Spirit
to bear against it in particular, and so by always overcoming the stronger
passions, he will gain a quick and easy victory over the rest, because by a
course of triumphs the soul is made more vigorous, and the fact that the next
conflict is with weaker passion insures him a readier success in the struggle:
as is generally the case with those who are wont to face all kinds of wild
beasts in the presence of the kings of this world, out of consideration for
the rewards -- a kind of spectacle which is generally called "pancarpus." (1)
Such men, I say, direct their first assault against whatever beasts they see
to be the strongest and fiercest, and when they have despatched these, then
they can more easily lay low the remaining ones, which are not so terrible
and powerful. So too, by always overcoming the stronger passions, as weaker
ones take their place, a perfect victory will be secured for us without any
risk. Nor need we imagine that if any one grapples with one fault in particular,
and seems too careless about guarding against the attacks of others, he will
be easily wounded by a sudden assault, for this cannot possibly happen. For
where a man is anxious to cleanse his heart, and has steeled his heart's purpose
against the attack of any one fault, it is impossible for him not to have a
general dread of all other faults as well, and take similar care of them. For
if a man renders himself unworthy of the prize of purity by contaminating himself
with other faults, how can he possibly succeed in gaining the victory over
that one passion from which he is longing to be freed? But when the main purpose
of our heart has singled out one passion as the, special object of its attack,
we shall pray about it more earnestly, and with special anxiety and fervour
shall entreat that we may be more. especially on our guard against it and so
succeed in gaining a speedy victory. For the giver of the law himself teaches
us that we ought to follow this plan in our conflicts and not to trust in our
own power; as he says: "Thou shalt not fear them because the Lord thy
God is in the midst of thee, a God mighty and terrible: He will consume these
nations in thy sight by little and little and by degrees. Thou wilt not be
able to destroy them altogether: lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should
increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them in thy sight; and
shall slay them until they be utterly destroyed." (2)

CHAPTER XV.

How we can do nothing against our faults without the help of God, and how
we should not be puffed up by victories over them.

AND that
we ought not to be puffed up by victories over them he likewise charges us;
saying, "Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly
houses and dwelt in them, and shalt have herds of oxen and flocks of sheep,
and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things, thy heart be lifted up
and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and was thy leader in the great and terrible
wilderness." (8) Solomon also says in Proverbs: "When thine enemy
shall fall be not glad, and in his ruin be not lifted up, lest the Lord see
and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him," (4) i.e.,
lest He see thy pride of heart, and cease from attacking him, and thou begin
to be forsaken by Him and so once more to be troubled by that passion which
by God's grace thou hadst previously overcome. For the prophet would not have
prayed in these words, "Deliver not up to beasts, O Lord, the soul that
confesseth to Thee," (5) unless he had known that because of their pride
of heart some were given over again to those faults which they had overcome,
in order that they might be humbled. Wherefore it is well for us both to be
certified by actual experience, and also to be instructed by countless passages
of Scripture, that we cannot possibly overcome such mighty foes in our own
strength, and unless supported by the aid of God alone; and that we ought always
to refer the Whole Of our victory each day to God Himself, as the Lord Himself
also gives us instruction by Moses on this very point: "Say not in thine
heart when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my
righteousness hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these
nations are destroyed for their wickedness. For it is not for thy righteousness,
and the uprightness of thine heart, that thou shalt go in to possess their
lands: but because they have done wickedly they are destroyed at thy coming
in." (6) I ask what could be said clearer in opposition to that impious
notion and impertinence of ours, in which we want to ascribe everything that
we do to our own free will and our own exertions? "Say not," he tells
us, "in thine heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in
thy sight: For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this
land." To those who have their eyes opened and their ears ready to hearken
does not this plainly say: When your struggle with carnal faults has gone well
for you, and you see that you are free from the filth of them, and from the
fashions of this world, do not be puffed up by the success of the conflict
and victory and ascribe it to your own power and wisdom, nor fancy that you
have gained the victory over spiritual wickedness and carnal sins through your
own exertions and energy, and free will? For there is no doubt that in all
this you could not possibly have succeeded, unless you had been fortified and
protected by the help of the Lord.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the
meaning of the seven nations of whose lands lsrael took possession, and the
reason why they
are sometimes
spoken of as "seven," and sometimes
as "many."

THESE
are the seven nations whose lands the Lord promised to give to the children
of lsrael when they
came
out of Egypt. And everything which, as the Apostle
says, happened to them "in a figure" (1) we ought to take as written
for our correction. For so we read: "When the Lord thy God shall have
brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to possess, and shall have
destroyed many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashites, and the
Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
seven nations much more numerous than thou art and much stronger than thou:
and the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly
destroy them." (2) And the reason that they are said to be much more numerous,
is that faults are many more in number than virtues and so in the list of them
the nations are reckoned as seven in number, but when the attack upon them
is spoken of they are set down without their number being given, for thus we
read "And shall have destroyed many nations before thee." For the
race of carnal passions which springs from this sevenfold incentive and root
of sin, is more numerous than that of Israel. For thence spring up murders,
strifes, heresies, thefts, false witness, blasphemy, surfeiting, drunkenness,
back-biting, buffoonery, filthy conversation, lies, perjury, foolish talking,
scurrility, restlessness, greediness, bitterness, clamour, wrath, contempt,
murmuring, temptation, despair, and many other faults, which it would take
too long to describe. And if we are inclined to think these small matters,
let us hear what the Apostle thought about them, and what was his opinion of
them: "Neither murmur ye," says he, "as some of them murmured,
and were destroyed of the destroyer:" and of temptation: "Neither
let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted and perished by the serpents." (3)
Of backbiting: "Love not backbiting lest thou be rooted out." (4)
And of despair: "Who despairing have given themselves up to lasciviousness
unto the working of all error, in uncleanness." (5) And that clamour is
condemned as well as anger and indignation and blasphemy, the words of the
same Apostle teach us as clearly as possible when he thus charges us: "Let
all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy be put
away from you with all malice," (6) and many more things like these. And
though these are far more numerous than the virtues are, yet if those eight
principal sins, from which we know that these naturally proceed, are first
overcome, all these at once sink down, and are destroyed together with them
with a lasting destruction. For from gluttony proceed surfeiting and drunkenness.
From fornication filthy conversation, scurrility, buffoonery and foolish talking.
From covetousness, lying, deceit, theft, perjury, the desire of filthy lucre,
false witness, violence, inhumanity, and greed. From anger, murders, clamour
and indignation. From dejection, rancor, cowardice, bitterness, despair. From
accidie, laziness, sleepiness, rudeness, restlessness, wandering about, instability
both of mind and body, chattering, inquisitiveness. From vainglory, contention,
heresies, boasting and confidence in novelties. From pride, contempt, envy,
disobedience, blasphemy, murmuring, backbiting. And that all these plagues
are stronger than we, we can tell very plainly from the way in which they attack
us. For the delight in carnal passions wars more powerfully in our members
than does the desire for virtue, which is only gained with the greatest contrition
of heart and body. But if you will only gaze with the eyes of the spirit on
those countless hosts of our foes, which the Apostle enumerates where he says: "For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness
in heavenly places," (7) and this which we find of the righteous man in
the nineteenth Psalm: "A thousand shall fall beside thee and ten thousand
at thy right hand," (1) then you will clearly see that they are far more
numerous and more powerful than are we, carnal and earthly creatures as we
are, while to them is given a substance which is spiritual and incorporeal.

CHAPTER XVII.

A question with regard to the comparison of seven nations with eight faults.

GERMANUS: How then is it that there are eight faults which assault us, when
Moses reckons the nations opposed to the people of Israel as seven, and how
is it well for us to take possession of the territory of our faults?

CHAPTER XVIII.

SERAPION: Everybody is perfectly agreed that there are eight principal faults
which affect a monk. And all of them are not included in the figure of the
nations for this reason, because in Deuteronomy Moses, or rather the Lord through
him, was speaking to those who had already gone forth from Egypt and been set
free from one most powerful nation, I mean that of the Egyptians. And we find
that this figure holds good also in our case, as when we have got clear of
the snares of this world we are found to be free from gluttony, i.e., the sin
of the belly and palate; and like them we have a conflict against these seven
remaining nations, without taking account at all of the one which has been
already overcome. And the land of this nation was not given to Israel for a
possession, but the command of the Lord ordained that they should at once forsake
it and go forth from it. And for this cause our fasts ought to be made moderate,
that there may be no need for us through excessive abstinence, which results
from weakness of the flesh and infirmity, to return again to the land of Egypt,
i.e., to our former greed and carnal lust which we forsook when we made our
renunciation of this world. And this has happened in a figure, in those who
after having gone forth into the desert of virtue again hanker after the flesh
pots over which they sat in Egypt.

CHAPTER XIX.

The reason why one nation is to be forsaken, while seven are commanded to
be destroyed.

BUT the
reason why that nation in which the children of Israel were born, was bidden
not to be utterly
destroyed
but only to have its land forsaken,
while it was commanded that these seven nations were to be completely destroyed,
is this: because however great may be the ardour of spirit, inspired by which
we have entered on the desert of virtues, yet we cannot possibly free ourselves
entirely from the neighbourhood of gluttony or from its service and, so to
speak, from daily intercourse with it. For the liking for delicacies and dainties
will live on as something natural and innate in us, even though we take pains
to cut off all superfluous appetites and desires, which, as they cannot be
altogether destroyed, ought to be shunned and avoided. For of these we read "Take
no care for the flesh with its desires." (2) While then we still retain
the feeling for this care, which we are bidden not altogether to cut off, but
to keep without its desires, it is clear that we do not destroy the Egyptian
nation but separate ourselves in a sort of way from it, not thinking anything
about luxuries and delicate feasts, but, as the Apostle says, being "content
with our daily food and clothing." (3) And this is commanded in a figure
in the law, in this way: "Thou shalt not abhor the Egyptian, because thou
wast a stranger in his land." (4) For necessary food is not refused to
the body without danger to it and sinfulness in the soul. But of those seven
troublesome faults we must in every possible way root out the affections from
the inmost recesses of our souls. For of them we read: "Let all bitterness
and anger and indignation and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you with
all malice:" and again: "But fornication and all uncleanness and
covetousness let it not so much as be named among you, or obscenity or foolish
talking or scurrility." (3) We can then cut out the roots of these faults
which are grafted into our nature from without while we cannot possibly cut
off occasions of gluttony. For however far we have advanced, we cannot help
being what we were born. And that this is so we can show not only from the
lives of little people like ourselves but from the lives and customs of all
who have attained perfection, who even when they have got rid of incentives
to all other passions, and are retiring to the desert with perfect fervour
of spirit and bodily abnegation, yet still cannot do without thought for their
daily meal and the preparation of their food from year to year.

CHAPTER XX.

Of the nature of gluttony, which may be illustrated by the simile of the eagle.

An admirable illustration of this passion, with which a monk, however spiritual
and excellent, is sure to be hampered, is found in the simile of the eagle.
For this bird when in its flight on high it has soared above the highest clouds,
and has withdrawn itself from the eyes of all mortals and from the face of
the whole earth, is yet compelled by the needs of the belly to drop down and
descend to the earth and feed upon carrion and dead bodies. And this clearly
shows that the spirit of gluttony cannot be altogether extirpated like all
other faults, nor be entirely destroyed like them, but that we can only hold
down and check by the power of the mind all incentives to it and all superfluous
appetites.

CHAPTER XXI.

Of the lasting character of gluttony as described to some philosophers.

FOR the
nature of this fault was admirably expressed under cover of the following
puzzle by one
of the Elders
in a discussion with some philosophers, who thought
that they might chaff him like a country bumpkin because of his Christian simplicity "My
father," said he, "left me in the clutches of a great many creditors.
All the others I have paid in full, and have freed myself from all their pressing
claims; but one I cannot satisfy even by a daily payment." And when they
could not see the meaning of the puzzle, and urgently begged him to explain
it: "I was," said he," in my natural condition, encompassed
by a great many faults. But when God inspired me with the longing to be free,
I, renounced this world, and at the same time gave up all my property which
I had inherited from my father, and so I satisfied them all like pressing creditors,
and freed myself entirely from them. But I was never able altogether to get
rid of the incentives to gluttony. For though I reduce the quantity of food
which I take to the smallest possible amount, yet I cannot avoid the force
of its daily solicitations, but must be perpetually 'dunned' by it, and be
making as it were interminable payments by continually satisfying it, and pay
never ending toll at its demand." Then they declared that this man, whom
they had till now despised as a booby and a country bumpkin, had thoroughly
grasped the first principles of philosophy, i.e., training in ethics, and they
marvelled that he could by the light of nature have learnt that which no schooling
in this world could have taught him, while they themselves with all their efforts
and long course of training had not learnt this. This is enough on gluttony
in particular. Now let us return to the discourse in which we had begun to
consider the general relation of our faults to each other.

CHAPTER XXII.

How it was that God foretold to Abraham that Israel would have to drive out
ten nations.

WHEN the Lord was speaking with Abraham about the future (a point which you
did not ask about) we find that He did not enumerate seven nations, but ten,
whose land He promised to give to his seed. (1) And this number is plainly
made up by adding idolatry, and blasphemy, to whose dominion, before the knowledge
of God and the grace of Baptism, both the irreligious hosts of the Gentiles
and blasphemous ones of the Jews were subject, while they dwelt in a spiritual
Egypt. But when a man has made his renunciation and come forth from thence,
and having by God's grace conquered gluttony, has come into the spiritual wilderness,
then he is free from the attacks of these three, and will only have to wage
war against those seven which Moses enumerates.

CHAPTER XXIII.

How it is useful for us to take possession of their lands.

But the
fact that we are bidden for our good to take possession of the countries
of those most wicked
nations,
may be understood in this way. Each fault has
its own especial corner in the heart, which it claims for itself in the recesses
of the soul, and drives out Israel, i.e., the contemplation of holy and heavenly
things, and never ceases to oppose them. For virtues cannot possibly live side
by side with faults. "For what participation hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?" (2) But as soon as these
faults have been overcome by the people of Israel, i.e., by those virtues which
war against them, then at once the place in our heart which the spirit of concupiscence
and fornication had occupied, will be filled by chastity. That which wrath
had held, will be claimed by patience. That which had been occupied by a sorrow
that worketh death, will be taken by a godly sorrow and one full of joy. That
which had been wasted by accidie, will at once be tilled by courage. That which
pride had trodden down will be ennobled by humility: and so when each of these
faults has been expelled, their places (that is the tendency towards them)
will be filled by the opposite virtues which are aptly termed the children
of Israel, that is, of the soul that seeth God: (1) and when these have expelled
all passions from the heart we may believe that they have recovered their own
possessions rather than invaded those of others.

CHAPTER XXIV.

How the lands from which the Canaanites were expelled, had been assigned to
the seed of Shem.

For, as an ancient tradition tells us, (2) these same lands of the Canaanites
into which the children of Israel were brought, had been formerly allotted
to the children of Shem at the division of the world, and afterward the descendants
of Ham wickedly invading them with force and violence took possession of them.
And in this the righteous judgment of God is shown, as He expelled from the
land of others these who had wrongfully taken possession of them, and restored
to those others the ancient property of their fathers which had been assigned
to their ancestors at the division of the world. And we can perfectly well
see that this figure holds good in our own case. For by nature God's will assigned
the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues, which, after the fall
of Adam were driven out from their own country by the sins which grew up, i.e.,
by the Canaanites; and so when by God's grace they are by our efforts and labour
restored again to it, we may hold that they have not occupied the territory
of another, but rather have recovered their own country.

CHAPTER XXV.

Different passages of Scripture on the meaning of the eight faults.

And in
reference to these eight faults we also have the following in the gospel: "But
when the unclean spirit is gone out from a man, he walketh through dry places
seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return to my house from
whence I came out: and coming he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished: then
he goeth and taketh seven other spirits worse than himself, and they enter
in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse than the first." (8)
Lo, just as in the former passages we read of seven nations besides that of
the Egyptians from which the children of Israel had gone forth, so here too
seven unclean spirits are said to return beside that one which we first hear
of as going forth from the man. And of this sevenfold incentive of sins Solomon
gives the following account in Proverbs: "If thine enemy speak loud to
thee, do not agree to him because there are seven mischiefs in his heart;" (4)
i.e., if the spirit of gluttony is overcome and begins to flatter you with
having humiliated it, asking in a sort of way that you would relax something
of the fervour with which you began, and yield to it something beyond what
the due limits of abstinence, and measure of strict severity would allow, do
not you be overcome by its submission, nor return in fancied security from
its assaults, as you seem to have become for a time freed from carnal desires,
to your previous state of carelessness or former liking for good things. For
through this the spirit whom you have vanquished is saying "I will return
to my house from whence I came out," and forthwith the seven spirits of
sins which proceed from it will prove to you more injurious than that passion
which in the first instance you overcame, and will presently drag you down
to worse kinds of sins.

CHAPTER XXVI.

How when we have got the better of the passion of gluttony we must take pains
to gain all the other virtues.

WHEREFORE while we are practising fasting and abstinence, we must be careful
when we have got the better of the passion of gluttony never to allow our mind
to remain empty of the virtues of which we stand in need; but we should the
more earnestly fill the inmost recesses of our heart with them for fear lest
the spirit of concupiscence should return and find us empty and void of them,
and should not be content to secure an entrance there for himself alone, but
should bring in with him into our heart this sevenfold incentive of sins and
make our last state worse than the first. For the soul which boasts that it
has renounced this world with the eight faults that hold sway over it, will
afterwards be fouler and more unclean and visited with severer punishments,
than it was when formerly it was at home in the world, when it had taken upon
itself neither the rules nor the name of monk. For these seven spirits are
said to be worse than the first which went forth, for this reason; because
the love of good things, i.e., gluttony would not be in itself harmful, were
it not that it opened the door to other passions; viz, to fornication, covetousness,
anger, dejection, and pride, which are clearly hurtful in themselves to the
soul, and domineering over it. And therefore a man will never be able to gain
perfect purity, if he hopes to secure it by means of abstinence alone, i.e.,
bodily fasting, unless he knows that he ought to practise it for this reason
that when the flesh is brought low by means of fasting, he may with greater
ease enter the lists against other faults, as the flesh has not been habituated
to gluttony and surfeiting.

CHAPTER XXVII.

That our battles are not fought with our faults in the same order as that
in which they stand in the list.

BUT you must know that our battles are not all fought in the same order, because,
as we mentioned that the attacks are not always made on us in the same way,
each one of us ought also to begin the battle with due regard to the character
of the attack which is especially made on him so that one man will have to
fight his first battle against the fault which stands third on the list, another
against that which is fourth or fifth. And in proportion as faults hold sway
over us, and the character of their attack may demand, so we too ought to regulate
the order of our conflict, in such a way that the happy result of a victory
and triumph succeeding may insure our attainment of purity of heart and complete
perfection.

Thus far did Abbot Serapion discourse to us of the nature of the eight principal
faults, and so clearly did he expound the different sorts of passions which
are latent within us -- the origin and connexion of which, though we were daily
tormented by them, we could never before thoroughly understand and perceive
-- that we seemed almost to see them spread out before our eyes as in a mirror.